LG QNED91T6A vs Samsung The Frame 2026 (LS03H)

As befits a MiniLED television, QNED91T LG easily exceeds the magic barrier of 1000 nits on the luminance chart. In scenes where light played a key role, the effect was truly decent. For example, 1000 nits in the first scene of "Life of Pi" is really an impressive value, and the 600 nits achieved in scenes three and five allowed us to feel the true magic of HDR. However, problems arise with very small light elements on the screen, such as the moon, lanterns, or lamps. A value of around 100 nits - to put it bluntly - is disappointing, as these elements are so dark that they are barely visible. It is worth praising the television for covering the DCI-P3 colour gamut at 96% and BT.2020 at 75%. LG QNED91T leaves us with mixed feelings, mainly due to very aggressive dimming algorithms, which, while effectively eliminating the halo effect, do impact the brightness of smaller elements.

The Frame 2026 is genuinely a bright TV. Its peak brightness reaches about 650 nits and, importantly, similar values are maintained regardless of the type of scene being displayed. So it doesn’t matter much whether we’re watching a very bright full-screen shot or just a small bright element occupying part of the screen. The backlight always has a lot of power, so bright portions of the image are strongly illuminated. That gives The Frame a solid foundation for HDR. Bright highlights can stand out, and the picture doesn’t look flat or too dark. Unfortunately, this is not a solution without compromises. Because it lacks local dimming, the TV cannot darken the blacks next to very bright elements.

This is clearly visible, among other things, in scenes 2 and 4 from our test procedure. Bright areas look intense, but at the same time the blacks around them become noticeably lifted. The picture loses depth as a result, especially when watching in the evening. For that reason The Frame performs best with HDR in bright and moderately bright scenes. There the high backlight brightness works in its favor. In darker shots the situation is the opposite.

Colors

The Frame also performs well in terms of color. It’s a QLED TV, so it can display a wide color gamut and show richly saturated colors. DCI-P3 coverage is around 94%, and BT.2020 about 72%. Those are good numbers and you can see them while watching. Colors are vivid and do not look washed out. It looks best in bright, colorful scenes. Animations or cartoons with lots of saturated hues can look really good on The Frame. In such material the TV shows one of its stronger points.

We conduct all our tests in the best picture mode on each TV. In this case, as usual, it is the Filmmaker mode. The name of the mode suggests perfect colour reproduction; however, there were noticeable deviations from the correct image. Our unit, in terms of white balance, showed a significant drop in shades of blue - both in SDR and 4K HDR material - which caused a clear yellowing of the image, noticeable in comparison scenes from the film with Tom Cruise. As we described earlier, QNED91T has some tendencies to brighten the screen. This is confirmed by the gamma, which is significantly lower than the reference value of 2.4. On the other hand, the EOTF curve, responsible for brightness in 4K content, showed some issues with the TV dimming the image in the darkest areas, which we could observe in the paragraph describing HDR effect quality. Although the Filmmaker mode is quite a decent "out of the box" mode, it still requires some adjustments.

To evaluate the out-of-the-box colors we chose Filmmaker Mode. If you’re encountering it for the first time, it’s a mode designed to present a movie or series as faithfully as possible. The TV then turns off most additional picture enhancers, and the colors and luminance characteristics are meant to be as close as possible to what the content creators intended. I have to admit that the The Frame 2026 already performs quite well in this regard straight out of the box. The biggest deviation is visible in the white balance. As brightness increases, blue starts to drop off and green increases slightly. As a result the image shifts toward warmer tones. White is therefore not perfectly neutral, and in some scenes you can notice a slightly warmer overall cast.

The luminance response — gamma or EOTF — looks good. Across most of the range they stay fairly close to the target, though in the darkest parts of the image there is a larger deviation. In practice, some details emerging from black may therefore appear a bit more pronounced. That said, it’s not a flaw that jumps out during normal viewing. Overall, Filmmaker Mode is a good starting point here. However, the factory image is a bit too warm and not all hues land exactly where they should.

LG offers advanced calibration tools in its televisions such as 65QNED91T6A, which we took advantage of. When it comes to white balance, we were able to significantly correct it in SDR content. The picture mode in 4K HDR quality posed greater challenges, which, although still not perfect, looks better than before calibration. The errors on the Color Checker palette and the colour palette are much smaller than in factory settings. Regarding brightness characteristics, gamma for HD content is practically ideal, with a slight exception at the end of the graph. However, the biggest issues the television had were with brightness in 4K HDR content. Analyzing the EOTF characteristics in films, we noticed that the television manipulates brightness quite significantly, which we observed in earlier tests. Brightness is considerably boosted compared to the graph in the static test, and the television brightens certain scenes to the extent that some smaller elements lose detail. Unfortunately, this is caused by an average local dimming algorithm in this model. Nevertheless, calibration yields decent results, especially in terms of precise colour reproduction.

After calibration we mainly managed to remove that warmer cast and better even out the white balance. We also smoothed the brightness response a bit, which made the image more neutral and predictable. However, there are things calibration won't fix. It's mainly the behavior of the blacks, which stems from the backlight design itself and the lack of local dimming. In some scenes blacks will therefore still be slightly lifted, and you'll just have to accept that. That's more a characteristic of this model than something that can be fixed with settings. HDR is also somewhat limited. Samsung doesn't give full freedom to work across the widest color gamut, so not all colors can be reproduced perfectly. In normal viewing you probably won't notice it, but it's worth being aware of.

When it comes to tonal transitions in lower quality materials, the TV offers the already-known feature from LG TVs - "Smooth Gradation." We can control it at three levels: low, medium, and high. We recommend using the medium option, as it effectively removes tonal transitions without causing noticeable issues with removing the structure of objects or other artefacts.

As for image scaling (upscaling), LG's Alpha processor handles this well. The image appears very plastic, with slight jaggedness in some elements, which does not significantly affect the quality. It looks really okay, and the overall effect is very satisfactory.

As with many of Samsung’s newer TVs, this one also uses the NQ4 AI processor, only the older, second-generation version. And you have to admit it handles digital image processing quite well. Lower-resolution material is sharpened effectively, and after upscaling to 4K it still looks natural. The TV can also somewhat "tidy up" weaker sources, like older recordings or lower-quality broadcasts. That doesn't, of course, mean it will suddenly turn poor footage into 4K, but at closer viewing distances the difference compared with simpler models with weaker processors is easy to spot. Edges are clearer, and fine details don't get lost as much to signal compression.

Samsung also offers a few additional image-enhancing features, but as usual it's best to use them sparingly. At stronger settings, noise reduction can very effectively reduce posterization, but it also noticeably interferes with the image. The picture then simply starts to look very artificial, for example by heavily smoothing characters' faces. So it makes the most sense with really poor sources when various types of noise are seriously distracting.

The television has a refresh rate of 120 Hz, which should satisfy most users in terms of motion smoothness. Additionally, QNED91T is equipped with the TruMotion feature, which allows for smoother image display in movies. As part of this feature, we can adjust the "De-Judder" and "De-Blur" sliders. The "De-Judder" slider is responsible for reducing jitter in movies, which is particularly useful when playing content with a lower frame rate, while "De-Blur" helps reduce blurriness in fast scenes, which is essential for sports or dynamic shots.

Samsung again used a panel with a maximum refresh rate of 144 Hz here. Refresh rates up to 120Hz primarily offer more headroom for material with a lot of motion. The TV can use additional motion interpolation systems that can improve smoothness in sports and other fast-moving content. However, a high refresh rate alone does not solve everything. The Frame still uses a VA panel, which has a relatively slow response time, and consequently fairly pronounced motion blur. With fast-moving objects, especially on a dark background, motion trails are easy to notice. There's also a slight doubling of edges, which can be visible even with the additional motion processing systems turned off. We already saw similar behavior in last year’s The Frame 2025, and it’s a pity Samsung hasn’t fixed that element. The 144 Hz itself provides a good foundation, but the panel’s response time still limits this TV.

The LG 65QNED91T6A television is equipped with HDMI 2.1 ports with a full bandwidth of 48 Gb/s, providing full support for all standards needed for gaming on modern consoles. We can count on support for variable refresh rate (VRR) and auto low latency mode (ALLM). This ensures smooth gameplay without delays.

With support for all popular HDR standards in games, such as HGiG and Dolby Vision, we can fully harness the potential of the PS5 and XBOX One consoles. The television also easily handles lower resolutions than 4K, so even older consoles look good on it. The Game Bar makes it easy to access gaming-related settings, allowing us to quickly and intuitively adjust picture parameters and features for gamers. Additionally, the QNED91T offers NVIDIA GeForce Now functionality, enabling us to game in the cloud without needing a console. However, it should be noted that this solution is quite expensive and somewhat falls short compared to Xbox Game Pass, which is available only on Samsung TVs.

QNED91T LG is a great choice for less experienced and more advanced gamers looking for a versatile television for gaming.

In terms of gaming features, The Frame is practically on par with Samsung's top TVs. When you connect a console the TV automatically switches to game mode thanks to ALLM, so you don't have to change settings manually each time. There's also VRR, which matches the display's refresh rate to the frames being produced by the console or PC. During drops in smoothness this helps avoid the characteristic screen tearing. The Frame of course supports 4K at 120 Hz, so you can take advantage of the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X in games that offer higher frame rates. HGiG also works correctly. With HDR set up properly on the console the TV doesn't try to brighten the image on its own, so bright effects in games are shown as they should be. Samsung also includes a Game Bar. It's a handy menu you can bring up without leaving the game. There you can check things like VRR and the current frame rate, and quickly change the most important gaming settings. For PC use the options are even greater, since the mentioned Full HD mode allows raising the refresh rate up to 240 Hz. There is really only one feature missing that Samsung has already spoiled us with, and that's Dolby Vision Gaming. Xbox owners will notice this the most, because that console can use Dolby Vision in games. There's one more thing worth mentioning that applies specifically to this model. Its One Connect module has only one HDMI 2.1 port, so that's the only port you can use for a console or PC if you want 4K 120 Hz. Fortunately Samsung didn't tie that port to eARC. You can therefore connect a soundbar separately (3) and still have a full HDMI 2.1 port available for the console.